Netflix on Monday announced that it will abandon its plan to spin off the company’s DVD rentals-by-mail service. The home entertainment giant announced last month that it would break off its DVDs-by-mail service into a separate company called “Qwikster,” allowing it to focus on the Web-based content that represented the future of its business. “It is clear that for many of our members two websites would make things more difficult, so we are going to keep Netflix as one place to go for streaming and DVDs,” Netflix CEO Reed Hastings wrote on the company’s blog. “This means no change: one website, one account, one password… in other words, no Qwikster.” Shares of Netflix stock jumped more than 11% in pre-market trading on the news. Netflix lost more than 30% of its market value since the company first announced its Qwikster spin-off. More →

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings in a letter to subscribers on Monday stated that Netflix will no longer operate the DVD rental-by-mail service that carried it to the top of the home entertainment industry. Instead, Netflix will be a streaming-only service while the DVD rental business — which will soon add video games to its portfolio — is spun off and rebranded Qwikster. “I messed up. I owe you an explanation,” Hastings’ letter to Netflix customers begins. “It is clear from the feedback over the past two months that many members felt we lacked respect and humility in the way we announced the separation of DVD and streaming and the price changes. That was certainly not our intent, and I offer my sincere apology.” The chief executive continued, attempting to clarify that streaming is the company’s future and this is why it began the process of separating its two services last year. The spin-off of Qwikster as a DVD rental business is the last step in that process, and while investors aren’t terribly happy with the company right now, the move allows Netflix to concentrate on its future: streaming content. Hastings’ full letter to subscribers follows below. More →